I don't know very much about bbm, but from what I have read I believe that on pay as you go you have to pay extra for it as well as having to purchase data and it can be a right pain to use (unless I have just found the unlucky people when doing my surfing)

do people think its worth it? or would I find it more useful just to use wireless instead?

BBM is a service offered by BlackBerry, not Orange. It works only between other BlackBerry users, of course. You will need a specific BlackBerry data plan in addition to your paygo plan. Once you do, though, BBM is free to use, and even includes free Wifi calling with BBM Voice (again, only to other BBM users).

I find BBM very useful, and would not consider giving it up.

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BBM stands for BlackBerry Messenger, and is just one of several BlackBerry features.

A BlackBerry data plan will give you the core BlackBerry functionality - email, multitasking, BBM, browser, etc. BBM Voice is part of BBM and works over Wifi, so you must be on Wifi and calling another BBM user (also on Wifi).

Without a BlackBerry data plan, you have very limited capability. You can make calls and send text messages, but little else, in most cases.

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fourstringfuror you are truly a genius, I understand and like what I am hearing, I do some linux development work (hobby), with mainly Australians and Americans so if they had blackberry's they could ring me (on wifi) when I am not on line or message me if I was not on wifi for free, or the other way around.

also I presume I would be able to make voice calls from free public WiFi hotspots

with the browser would there be a limit to what I could view, or would I need a separate data plan for that

thanks NJBlackBerry for your post, I have got my head around it now, sorry when referring to WiFi I was meaning using BBS to BBS (bad post sorry) and yes it all depends on what the carrier/hardware will allow

at least with PAYG I can get a 1 month data plan initially and test the boundary's to see what is possible without having to sign up for a contract.

Back in the day....2005-2009, BBM was one of my favorite features of my red 8310 curve but all of my friends and coworkers had BBs. Now I do not know one single person with a BB so BBM would be useless to me. My how things have changed.

The bottom line is you'll need a BlackBerry data plan to use BBM (including BBM Voice), email, browser, and pretty much anything beyond making phone calls and sending text messages.

I am new to BlackBerry and know little about BBM. I have only a talk and text plan from Koodo but the BBM text messages work without a data plan. I suppose some of the other BBM features might come with extra cost.

A couple years ago I had a BBM contact list that was 4 pages long. I re-activated my BB 9650 the other day and my BBM contact list was just TWO contacts. Seems they've all gone to iPhones. Hopefully this will change when the app is ported cross-platform.

Opening up BBM to iOS and Android can revitalize BBM. Especially Android. Apple has iMessage, a BBM-style messaging protocol that is iPhone-only. It will be a real uphill battle to get iPhone users to adopt BBM in light of what iMessage gives them. Android doesn't have anything as compelling as iMessage or BBM. If Android users adopt BBM in force that might drag along enough iPhone users so it's at least a second messaging app more users will consider.